Hey there community

Pretty self-explanatory. As soon as I heard about Sonimus console products, I immediately wondered about how they stood up to my much-loved airwindows console systems, which seem to work fairly similarly in deployment. The use of the term "3D" on their advertisements have got me wondering if there's anything convolution-based going on with sonimus. I'll probably try em both when my current production reaches the proper stage but I wanted to see if any of y'all had tried comparing them yet.... or could even speak just on fundamental differences between their algorithms.

Im sure sure it would be an interesting comparison....

 

Sonimus consoles aren't bad but i prefer AW a million times if emulating the summing characteristics is what you want. In a high track count there's yet a plugin to beat what AW Console does. Sonimus by the other hand, are useful for VCA grouping, crosstalk and saturation. I must confess i don't use any of them, except for A-Console when i want API color without any other controls and little to none CPU. It sounds great for that. I don't like the Neve one, and Satson, which is meant to be a SSL, sounds solid but i have no applications for it now.

 

Hi, which Airwindows console do you use? I've found ConsoleMC to sound really good on melody busses. But as someone who works at 48k, it never seems to fit well into my workflow because i always have to use a wrapper for 2x oversampling and it usually ends up not being worth it because of how difficult it gets to dial in each channel. Just curious to see which console you prefer from Chris.
EDIT: to answer OP's question i've never used the Sonimus consoles, but thanks to GUISEPPE i'll get to try them soon!

 

Don't do that! The only AW Console that needs to be strictly running at 96Khz is ConsoleZero because on lower ones it will sound dark. The others were designed at 96Khz because it's Chris' personal preference since he will only use AW plugins and don't use oversampling (since it will add processing that is non related to the plugin). So all the Console models, except Zero, are sample rate free. What matters the most for the console sound is the relation between channels and the encoding/decoding processing. You shouln't, ideally, oversample the Console because this may stack filters in between the encoding and decoding processing; and one of the few rules of AW Console is to not add processing between the calculation. Even a gain trim on the fader after ConsoleOut may miscalibrate it (that's why you need to be unity gain on the faders and shouldn't pan on the DAW; the plugin has those controls). You're not missing anything by not running it on 96Khz. Run it natively on 48 and feel the magic

My beloved combo was ConsoleLA on the drums and bass for some Steely Dan vibe and ConsoleMC on melodies for some Hotel California vibe. But it sounded too vintage to mix some modern appealing tracks. So i build a SSL style template using Console9 (which is the summing from ConsoleX, a SSL style emulation). There are some gems on Console9, one being the fact that this version likes the multibus style of mixing that most of modern mixes has on the DAW. Chris was deeply inspired by CLA's mixing when he did this plugin, especially the philosofies related to the CLA send faders. You can encode, decode, re-encode/redecode it again and again because it will cumulate the power instead of just throwing random distortion. The processing is not only happening horizontally; is also vertically.

 

Hugely appreciate this feedback man. Thank you.

I've always felt inclined to oversample it BC of that, since I know he works strictly at 96. Now I look forward to trying some at 48k, alongside my current preferences (lots of Nebula and Jaycen Joshua influence since i mainly make trap)

I love CLA's mixing style, American Idiot is one of my favorite albums of all time. Good to know Chris has impeccable taste! And so do you, thanks again.

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2026 at 2:51 AM

Riddim machine, thank you for your valuable contribution here - personally i am very happy with my console 9 setups - the summing is really what i am most interested in, and im perfectly happy with how AW handles it. All my songs are high track count, stuff that builds, and by the end of the song when all guns are blazing, its almost magic what its doing - and i love how much my pre-master prints already have such such wonderfully crafted peak control in the loud sections. combining console 9 with carefully scattered instances of true iron - well, i wont fix what most assuredly aint broken!

love chris' work! love his approach to wild dsp ideas too!

by the way, really cool to hear stuff youve tried with the different consoles - ive been far less adventurous than you!

 

It was a long road. I use the Console system since the version 7. It was one of the few plugins that made me shocked and realize that most of the devs don't know shit when it comes to emulate analog summing. Because it's not all about saturation and crosstalk; most modern summing mixers don't crosstalk at all, and it's not an intended behaviour. It's all about the channels interacting on the same electric device and sharing those characteristics. But it was a PITA to work on the 7 version because it didn't had pan and the track count was kinda restrictive, it wasn't optimized to the mixing standards of the most, but still was impressive how it shaped my sound without introducing obvious saturation, eq and compression. A very natural, random (on the health edge) and pleasing shaping, just like analog should be.

I skipped Console8 because i didn't liked the sound of it and the system became even more confusing with more than 1 step of encoding and decoding made by a separate plugin block. The native dither wasn't nice as well. But when ConsoleLA came out the game changed; it had a more mature tone and all the great sutff of Console7, Eq section and panning. After that all the releases of Console are worth trying not because they are better than the others, just different flavours. And a spoiler: Chris already mentioned that he's developing a system where you can use any flavour on the Channel plugin and the Buss plugin. You already can do part of it on Console9: you can use Console9, ConsoleX and ConsoleH on the same project because the use the same encoding/decoding calculation. I use ConsoleH Buss on my drums for some Tape grit

 

Anyone here tried analog molecule+hot summer?

 

I tried TAMD but not The Hot Summer. The Analog Molecule Deluxe has an interesting concept of integrating the modules on the whole system, also has a RIDICULOUS good tone. It's on my buying list, and i didn't bought it yet because i need to realize if i'm going to implement it on my system or not. Right now i'm not using it because i have a damn reliable system with FAL Flywheel + Bx SSL channel + AW Console. I'm not planning to change it now.

 

The deluxe version hit the sister site if you wanna demo it, in case you missed it. I think ill pick it up next payday, relatively cheap, dude has cancer and its pretty cool imo.

Im not an expert at anything besides failing at life but it DID seem to enhance the perceived loudness of the track, while actually sitting like half a db under bypassed version. Maybe just me being an idiot. Once I got the routing all figured out (dawnshiftaudio on youtube had some vids about how to go about it) I saved a template in reaper. Im gonna mess with it more- it seemed like it made a difference more than inserting like alexb consoles does. Probably cause of the crosstalk and interactions.

Oh I misread that you did try the molecule already. Guessing you're running reaper, id say if you get bored sometime it's worth combining the two to test out.

 

Yeah, got it working inside of Bitwig, guys on GS are really going solution after solution, right now whole combo can be used for free outside of Reaper with Kushview Element and Audio Router ysfx's. Anyone on older macOS should use older build of ysfx. There's whole guide to set it up too.

Bought Deluxe after a day of use, sounds great, CPU usage is extremely low and there's plenty of customization options, which sealed the deal.

I like how things interact, that's my whole premise of using this, so use it alongside of Nebula, tried without it, but I'm not sold any of those (Sonimus, didn't tried Airwindows) sound better then Nebula stuff I use tone/character vise, but in conjunction, it's just magic. I'm using it on very modest settings, just to enhance the Nebula console, Boutique with 0.3 to 1.7 settings, tweak every instance from zero until it enhances what I already got going, really not pushing it much. Then finish it of with The Hot Summer, even there I bring all the settings to zero and just tweak until it clicks.

I kinda really dig 80 series Neve character and maybe even more the 5088, but for EDM I just keep coming back to SSL 4KE, it's the fucking sound of modern EDM, but it's sterile and really having "that" envelope, so more often I go for "track on Neve, mix on SSL" kind of thing, especially if something is soaked in 80 series character, it becomes so thick that it loses the definition... so Analog Molecule is perfect addition for that, when you want that separation on top of what you already like, it works even better at enhancing then SSL.

My main gripe with all consoles for EDM was low end, it always sound different and not necessary better, but with Molecule I finally could enhance that aspect in my favor and Hot Summer just seals the deal, so right now totally in love with this combo for ambient or EDM.

 

One more question for you mate. About the pre's (e.g. ConsoleHPre), how does that work? Do i just put one before each Channel instance?
EDIT: this may seem like a silly question but i just want to make sure i get the most out of his stuff when i go to try all this. I actually love the idea of summing the drums the way you said, BEFORE my jaycen joshua-inspired trap chain. Because aliasing on drums is fine in my eyes, especially if it knocks in the car. But based on what i know, i think the AW pre is not the same as a Nebula pre so i should use it more sparingly?

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2026 at 5:05 PM

So that's what I thought re: not adding processing between the calculation--but then what does this mean (From Airwindowsopedia "Ultrasonic" Entry) ??: "Drop it into your (preferably 96k or 192k) digital mix and it will clean up anything nonlinear that goes after it. This includes Console! Just because Console ‘decodes’ doesn’t mean it can’t be hurt by aliasing of its nonlinearities: it just distorts so gently that it’s not automatically worse, but any aliasing that turns up in ConsoleChannel doesn’t get taken away by ConsoleBuss. Digital only gets worse, not better, and the trick is to make it get worse as slowly as possible while you work with it."

 

Airwindows is amazing, I recently fell in love with the clippers. Long time fan of the consoles. Sonimus sounds great as well but AW has the unbeatable price in this comparison. That said every Dev has a signature patina and that is what you go for when considering anything. AW has a cleaner sound imo